Oil prices slipped below $72 on Friday as losses on Wall Street and gains in the U.S. dollar dragged on commodities markets.

U.S. crude for October fell 56 cents to $71.93 a barrel by 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT). London Brent fell 54 cents to $71.97 a barrel.

The losses came as a report showing U.S. consumer confidence at four-month lows pulled Wall Street stock indexes into negative territory, in turn pushing the dollar up against the euro.

Commodities markets have tended to move in tandem with equities and contrary to the greenback as investors look to stocks as a lead indicator of economic performance and buy resources as a hedge against inflation.

Oil’s losses Friday reverse much of Thursday’s $1.06-gain, made on the back of better-than-expected GDP and jobs data in the United States, the world’s largest energy consumer.

Supporting optimistic sentiment, data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending rose in July and the U.K. economy

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Oil fell to near $71 a barrel on Wednesday, extending hefty losses from the previous session, as rising stockpiles of U.S. crude outweighed positive economic data.

U.S. crude for October fell 79 cents to $71.26 a barrel by 12:40 p.m. EDT (1640 GMT), after falling $2.32 on Tuesday. Brent crude fell 49 cents to $71.33 a barrel after losing $2.44 the previous day.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the Department of Energy, reported on Wednesday that crude stocks in the world’s largest energy consumer rose by 200,000 barrels last week.

While the build in crude stocks was nowhere near as large as the 4.3 million rise reported by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, it still confounded initial market predictions for a 1.1 million barrel drop.

“We remain in a situation of massive over-supply, which is off the charts, but it does appear to be peaking,” Summit Energy analyst Brad Samples

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World stocks slid on Wednesday after a mixed report on U.S. durable goods orders reignited doubts about economic recovery while oil prices fell on news of rising U.S. crude stockpiles.

The U.S. dollar gained, retracing the week’s losses, as the durables goods report for July eroded risk appetite and prompted investors to seek shelter in the safe-haven greenback.

Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods registered the biggest advance since July 2007, but excluding transportation goods, orders for durables were slightly below expectations.

Slippage among global stocks that climbed to 10-month highs this week boosted money flows into less risky assets, such as European government bonds, which also gained from some modest month-end buying, traders said.

Economic data in Europe showed further signs of recovery, as did a report showing U.S. new home sales jumped in July to their fastest pace in 10 months.

But a key measure of U.S. business demand — nondefense capital goods, excluding

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Oil has taken Wall Street on a roller coaster ride in the past week. The ride started with oil rising towards $72 ahead of inventory data and then falling below $71 after inventory data.

Oil fell toward $70 a barrel on Wednesday morning amidst U.S. government inventory data showing a build in crude stocks and weak economic data that raised concerns and doubts about oil demand recovery in the world’s largest energy consumer.

As example of these doubts was shown in U.S. light, sweet crude which fell 81 cents to $70.61 a barrel early in the day giving away some of the gains that helped oil rise 13 percent since last week.

U.S. crude inventories had a sharp rise last week which surprised many experts on Wall Street. According to weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which was released on Wednesday, refinery runs eased while distillate stocks

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Oil fell below $66 on Friday, in line with broad falls on global markets after data showing the U.S. economy contracted and consumer spending had declined, with knock-on effects for fuel demand.

U.S. light crude fell 95 cents to $65.99 a barrel by 1325 GMT, pulling back from its gains ahead of the release of the economic data.

London Brent crude dropped by $1.43 to $68.68.

U.S. gross domestic product fell 1.0 percent in the second quarter, with consumer spending falling 1.2 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department said.

Although the contraction was smaller than expected the January-March GDP was revised down to a 6.4 precent drop from the previously reported 5.5 percent fall.

With the contraction in the second quarter, U.S. GDP has fallen for four straight quarters for the first time since government records started in 1947.

“The GDP reading did come better than expected, but the stabilisation is coming off a downward revised first quarter number,”

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(Gold is the August contract on the NY Mercantile Exchange. Silver, copper and oil are the September contracts.)

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended modestly lower on Wednesday as the market consolidated recent gains, largely shrugging off a plunge in Chinese shares and weaker-than-expected data from the US factory sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 26 points, 0.29 per cent, to 9070.72. The Nasdaq composite dipped 7.75 points, 0.39 per cent, to 1967.76 and the broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 drifted down 4.47 points, or 0.46 per cent, to a close of 975.15.

LONDON - European stock markets, resisting a slide on Wall Street, advanced, drawing strength from corporate earnings results. The London FTSE 100 index gained 18.69, or 0.41 per cent, to close at 4547.53 points.

FRANKFURT - Pharmaceutical group Bayer surged 5.44 per cent to 42.23 euros after reporting results that beat expectations. Despite a third

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Oil fell below $65 a barrel on Wednesday, curbing a week of gains after data showing an unexpected rise in U.S. crude stocks suggested demand in the world’s top energy consumer was still weak.

The market awaited U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data due at 1430 GMT to see if they would confirm the trend from Tuesday’s American Petroleum Institute (API) figures.

U.S. crude oil for September delivery was down 90 cents at $64.71 a barrel by 1407 GMT, having fallen to a low of $63.76. London Brent crude for September lost 50 cents to $66.37.

The fall followed five days of rises that had pushed U.S. crude oil futures up more than 10 percent in just a week.

“The market has exhausted itself and needs to pause,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said in a research note. “Today, all attention will be on the weekly U.S. fuel inventories.”

U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose unexpectedly

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In the energy market, crude oil for August delivery climbed $1.51 from Thursday to close at $63.56/barrel. August reformulated gasoline rose more than five-and-a-half cents to finish at $1.7699/gallon. Crude got a boost from the housing data mentioned above, as the news raised hopes for an economic recovery.

Also pushing oil higher (according to MarketWatch), some traders who had been shorting, or selling without owning, the front-month contract have to buy it back to cover their positions before the contract expires Tuesday.

“Trading is like wind, and any economic headline that comes along can change the direction,” said Phil Flynn, vice president at futures trading and research firm PFGBest Research. “It seems traders want to cover shorts ahead of the weekend.”

The 6.1% gain oil posted this week came after a 10.3% fall last week. For the month, oil is still down 9.1%.

Meanwhile, China, the second-biggest energy consumer after the U.S., processed

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Oil prices slipped on Thursday as concerns about weak global fuel demand outweighed strong economic growth in China and better-than-expected U.S. banking results.

U.S. crude oil for August delivery fell 49 cents to $61.05 a barrel by 1745 GMT after hitting a low of $60.29 a barrel. London Brent crude slipped 43 cents to $62.66 ahead of the August contract’s expiry later on Thursday.

The losses come amid lingering worries about global energy demand, contracting for the first time in a quarter century under the weight of the economic recession.

The global slowdown has cut world oil demand by as much as 2.5 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency.

Jim Ritterbusch, president at Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois, added that recent government data showing increases in U.S. refined fuel supplies added to bearish sentiment in the oil market.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that gasoline and distillate supplies rose

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Crude oil inventories are 'bursting at the seams' as record amounts of unused oil are being put in storage around the world, threatening to flood the market; Goldman Sachs has predicted that storage capacity may be full by June.  Developing a 'southern corridor' for gas transit by increasing ties with Iraq and Turkey will be a priority at an EU European and Central Asian countries summit this week.  The ailing US steel industry has beseeched Washington to re-enforce trade laws concerning foreign dumping and also said that climate change laws will have a deleterious effect upon domestic steel manufacturers.  China will invest $293 billion in the alternative energy sector from now through to 2020 and is planning a 'stimulus package' to more than double the output of alternative energy target for 2020.  The world's second biggest energy consumer ...